Test Drive 2.0 #5 RSS feeds

I added RSS feeds for ABC and CNN news, the National Archives (U.K.) and National Archives of Australia very easily but I was disappointed not to find an RSS symbol anywhere on the websites for the Metropolitan Opera in Australia (personal interest) or for many of the sites that I would like to be kept updated on professionally such as PRO Victoria.
Despite this there are so many interesting websites with RSS feeds that the problem is knowing where to stop! Selectively applied RSS feeds can be great for keeping up to date with the latest developments in libraries and any special fields of interest - a significant substitute for the word-of mouth communication on updates to electronic resources that we have often had to rely on in the past.

Test Drive 2.0 #4 Social networking

I have a facebook account and have added photos with tags. It seems a great way to keep in touch with or resume contact with family and friends from across the globe (and through the mists of time..)
I also signed up for Twitter which looks interesting but needs further investigation and exploration.
I wasn't too impressed with the library facebook accounts I viewed - perhaps I was looking at the wrong ones but it is clear that if a library does have a facebook account it needs someone to take responsibility for keeping it fresh and up to date.
National Archives of Australia have a facebook account and seem to use it to deal with reference enquiries providing another useful access point for enquirers

Test Drive #3 Wikis

Wikis are a logical extension of email services and their potential is enormous for any shared activity. I created my own wiki using Paint and successfully added links to it but I am unsure how much, if at all, I shall use it after these Web 2.0exercises. I also edited one wiki.
I was distinctly underwhelmed by most of the wikis that I checked out:
The currency of posts left a lot to be desired on the New South Wales Marketing wiki. It's an eye-catchingly set up wiki but the posts are so old they aren't going to be of interest to most people
The Mint Museum was impressive but I couldn't see any options to edit the content so - understandably- it must be restricted to staff at the Museum.I could see no advantage in its being a wiki - it looks just like a website
The Likwiki is set out like Wikipedia. It is uninspiring to look at and its content is fairly pedestrian too.
A successful wiki needs to be attractively set up and generate enough interest in its content to inspire people to contribute regularly and keep the posts up to date and relevant.

Test Drive 2 #2 Photosharing

Holstentor at night (Lubeck). Original photo by Flavouz http://www.flickr.com/photos/flavouz/

I uploaded 3 personal photos to Flickr - my dog, my daughter's horse and an old painting I happen to be proud of - but I restricted access to family and friends because they aren't great photos.
It was quite easy to upload the photos but seemed to take forever.
Things I noted during the exercise:

the option of saving old family photos online is a real asset for family historians. How often have I heard people bemoan the fact that old family photos have been accidentally thrown out when someone died. No dust, no boxes, no fading or yellowing and freely available to all the family or the world as you choose.

Flickr and similar sites are just amazing resources for finding some truly superb images to brighten up emails, blog postings, etc.

thanks to the generosity of the image owners Creative Commons goes a long way to overcoming some of the problems associated with Copyright for those of us who don't want to use the images for commercial purposes

Flickr makes provision for people to restrict the use of images of them for commercial or unapproved purposes However, I still think that there is huge potential for invasion of privacy. If you don't actually own the image/s you could be featured on the Internet without even being aware of the fact.